COMMENT: AMERICAN TROOPS COULD BE RETURNING TO IRAQ - Quelling Terrorist Groups

(11/17/2015)

OPINION By Bob Weaver

How do you fight a religious culture that glorifies themselves with their own death?

Washington is cocked and ready to send more troops back into the Middle East, to defend our allies, national interests and values.

Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush says U.S. ‘should declare war’ with boots on the ground in fight against the Islamic State, with other Republican presidential candidates essentially echoing the same.

The spread of terrorism into allied nations has Washington's Republican politicians and some Democrats calling for direct intervention with boots on the ground, the Democrats more reluctant, likely looking at US polling that is opposed to such.

Following the Paris attack, a majority of Americans want the U.S. to intensify its military campaign on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but remain opposed to sending troops, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The poll found that 63 percent of Americans were fearful that a Paris-style attack could happen at home, and 60 percent of Americans think the U.S. should be doing more to attack ISIS.

Yet, those polled overwhelmingly opposed sending troops to the region. Sixty-five percent oppose sending special forces to the region, and an even greater number — 76 percent — oppose sending conventional ground troops.

Isis and other brutal Islamic terrorists would be imbued if the USA engages in a boots on the ground war, it would be according to their prophetic beliefs, related to end times.

They joy in their own demise.

The Islamic region has been plagued by sectarian conflict and death for thousands of years, but the inhuman and expansive violence of Isis has reached a torturous level.

The terror is likely to spread to American soil, not an if, but when.

Former president Gorge Bush's administration, using ill-begotten intelligence, said the invasion of Iraq would be "A piece of cake."

Now, President Obama's most senior national security advisers have recommended measures that would move U.S. troops closer to the front lines in Iraq and Syria, a sign of mounting White House dissatisfaction with progress against the Islamic State and a renewed Pentagon push to expand military involvement in the long-running conflicts.

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter is pressing the military to deliver new options for greater military involvement in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, with the US having already spent over a trillion dollars for ill-fated engagements, while politicians lament about the National Debt, needing to cut social programs and failing to take action on rebuilding our nation's decaying infrastructure.

The action requires formal approval from President Obama, who could make a decision to move forward with military action and could decide not to alter the current course, said U.S. officials.

Obama is still reluctant.

The number of troops approved for deployment, up until now, have been few.

The list of options that went to the president were generated by field commanders and vetted by the president’s top national security advisers, including Carter and Secretary of State John F. Kerry, in a series of meetings over the past few weeks.

That was before the massive attack in Paris.

Senior U.S. officials, however, warned that such measures had the potential to put the United States in direct conflict with the Syrian regime and the Russian and Iranian forces backing it.

But that could change.

US political scientists generally agree that the US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan propelled and polarized terrorist groups who want to see America destroyed.